Shadoan’s Where Do We Go From Here

Starting to Catch Fire Across the Midwest, Country
News by Al Giovetti

Who would have thought a computer game song would hit the top ten, from the platform of being an also ran on the smash or trash show of a Minnesota radio station. It is excellence like that and an eye to detail that may make Rick Dyer’s dream of producing a breakthrough fantasy adventure using traditional animation techniques a reality.

Check the previews and reviews section for the scoop on this new Interplay and Virtual Image Productions game just released. Check out the press release that follows and the interview in the interviews section with Rick.

Shadoan Title Track Fast Becoming First American Hit Single From An Interactive Adventure

SANTA YSABEL, Calif. -- Steve Helleksen says that within months Where Do We Go From Here? (Calace’s Song) will be among the top ten most-popular Adult Contemporary songs in the nation.

Helleksen is one of 2, 770 music directors at radio stations spanning across the country who received copies of the incredible vocal and instrumental music from the soon-to-be-hit multimedia title Shadoan™, featuring Where Do We Go From Here? Where Do We Go From Here? is a beautiful ballad written by the same musicians who scored the Academy-Award winning music to Pocahontas and Beauty and the Beast.

Helleksen recently played the song on a Smash or Trash call-in program, in which listeners vote whether they like or hate respectively what they’ve just heard. Where Do We Go From Here? received the first unanimous ‘Smash’ vote in the history of radio station KCPI-FM in Albert Lee, Minnesota. Based on their size, KCPI-FM would be considered a middle-market station, which gives perspective to the large listening audience that has already enjoyed Where Do We Go From Here?

Where Do We Go From Here? will now be making appearances in the station’s Top Nine At Nine Show, featured in their weekly Countdown Show and added as a feature song in their Total Recall Contest, in which parts of many top hits are spliced together and played quickly for a contestant. The contestant then tries to accurately recall the separate names of each of the songs he’s heard.

"The phones have been lighting up since we first played the song and we’ve had both kids and adults call in asking to hear it," Helleksen said. "We’ve already decided to put it in the ‘Hot Category’ as far as our play lists go. I think a lot of people are especially taken aback by the vocals in the song. That Smash or Trash program really helps determine what we’re going to play and the numbers speak for themselves."

Where Do We Go From Here? and the Shadoan musical soundtrack was composed in New York by Martin Erskin and Andy Brick as well as Doug and Brian Besterman - all Disney musicians well-respected for their award-winning contributions to film classics. Julie Eisenhower, related to former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, earned the lead singing honors after an exhaustive search confirmed that The Voice happened to be in their own backyard of San Diego, located 60 miles from company headquarters in the mountainous Santa Ysabel. Julie is currently a student at the University of California at San Diego.

Hellesken said he was so struck by the song that the referred Virtual Image Productions to Howard Rosen Productions in Los Angeles. Howard Rosen, who founded his hit-making agency in 1971 after having been the senior vice president for Motown Records, A&M Records and Warner Reprise Records, said that he hears a song the caliber of Where Do We Go From Here? only once or twice a year.

"Devastating," said Rosen after hearing the Shadoan title track for the first time. "Absolutely incredible. Two of the top three Adult Contemporary hits are beautiful ballads such as this one. It is sure to be a hit."

Shadoan is a fantasy adventure game that is available now on PC platforms through Interplay Inc., which will also produce a November-timed Macintosh version. Canadian-based ReadySoft Inc. will produce Shadoan versions for the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn, both due in November, and Philips Media will produce a version of Shadoan for their Philips CD-i platform. Shadoan features more than 70,000 hand-painted cels of animation, a musical score arranged by the same composers who scored Hollywood blockbusters such as Pocahontas and Beauty and the Beast and features a unique Parental Guidance Mode which enables parents to adjust the level of violence to what they believe to be appropriate for their children.

Headquarters 60 miles outside of San Diego in Santa Ysabel, California, Virtual Image Productions develops interactive games for CD-based and coin-operated markets. The remarkable imagination behind Virtual Image Productions’ award-winning creations is Rick Dyer, president and chief executive officer. In addition to creating Dragon’s Lair™, the world’s first full-animation video game and one of only three games on display at the prestigious Smithsonian Institute, Mr. Dyer has employed his creative abilities to develop Space Ace™, another top-selling animated adventure for more than a decade and Hologram Time Traveler™, the world’s first holographic coin-operated video game that was developed in partnership with Sega of America. Shadoan is Mr. Dyer’s first-home market venture.